Forum:How do we tell identical characters apart?
In TOS, some actors played more than one Enterprise crewmember. David L. Ross played Galloway and Johnson. Eddie Paskey played Connors and Leslie. Frank da Vinci played Brent and Vinci. So how do we know which character appeared in which episode? For example, if Frank da Vinci appears in an episode and his name isn't spoken, how do we know if it's Brent or Vinci? NetSpiker (talk) 09:17, August 22, 2016 (UTC) :The credits & scripts, then the Encyclopedia & interviews. - Compvox (talk) 09:52, August 22, 2016 (UTC) Let me give a more specific example. Brent is listed as appearing in the episode The Corbomite Maneuver. His name was never spoken in the episode and it's not mentioned in the credits. It's not in the script either. The Encyclopedia only mentions Brent appearing in The Naked Time. So how do we know that Frank da Vinci was playing Brent in The Corbomite Maneuver? NetSpiker (talk) 12:18, August 22, 2016 (UTC) :: Vinci is pure "red shirt", while Brent was the blue short and yellow shirt generalist and whose combined roles overlapped. That can all be pretty much figured out by reading the two articles. --Alan (talk) 12:29, August 22, 2016 (UTC) :We don't, so this character should be listed as unnamed in one of those specific articles. Unless we have a production source that states otherwise. Actors ≠ character and vice versa. - Compvox (talk) 12:37, August 22, 2016 (UTC) :::I agree; we shouldn't proceed from speculation, in such cases. --Defiant (talk) 12:57, August 22, 2016 (UTC) :Ah! If only I'd used more punctuation as per my usual :) - Compvox (talk) 13:52, August 22, 2016 (UTC) :::Does this issue only relate to Vinci and Brent? --Defiant (talk) 13:59, August 22, 2016 (UTC) :All joking aside Defiant I don't think so. I think it's an okay question but at the same time has already been covered in the relevant articles. - Compvox (talk) 14:03, August 22, 2016 (UTC) This issue also relates to Galloway/Johnson and Leslie/Connors. David L. Ross is credited as "Transporter Chief" in The Galileo Seven and "Guard" in The Trouble with Tribbles, so why do we assume that it's Galloway and not Johnson? NetSpiker (talk) 14:26, August 22, 2016 (UTC) ::::I've seen articles that portray the character(s) played by a recognizable actor, one of which was named in one episode and appears in several more, as being a cross-departmental versatile guy when that wasn't always the intention - merely to have some warm body doing a duty task in the background of a shot. --LauraCC (talk) 20:29, August 22, 2016 (UTC) I just wanted to bring this issue back to attention, since it hasn't been resolved. Should the articles be rewritten to show that in many episodes we don't know which character it is? Or are we happy to continue assuming that Blue/Yellow-Frank is always Brent, Red-Frank is always Vinci and unnamed David L. Ross is always Galloway? I'm not sure which is the best option. --NetSpiker (talk) 11:17, November 30, 2016 (UTC) I found another group of ambiguous characters. Fitzpatrick (Crewman), and Doug Bronowski were all played by Kerry Hoyt. Fitzpatrick was only referred to by name in the episode Hunters, Grimes was only referred to by name in the episode Lifesigns and Bronowski was only referred to by name in the episode Someone to Watch Over Me. All of Fitzpatrick's other supposed appearances could be either Fitzpatrick or Grimes or Bronowski. --NetSpiker (talk) 04:14, March 25, 2017 (UTC) I think we should do one of three things. 1. Keep things the way they are, but add a note explaining that this is just our assumption and it could be wrong. 2. Add the ambiguous appearances to both characters with a note at the beginning saying that the following appearances could belong to either character. 3. Move the ambiguous appearances to an unnamed officers list with a note explaining that the appearances could belong to either character. --NetSpiker (talk) 12:36, March 26, 2017 (UTC) I think 3 is the best of these options. If there are no objections I will soon be putting it into action. --NetSpiker (talk) 01:51, April 5, 2017 (UTC) :::::No. It is not a good option. It's a pretty bad option in fact. More thought and discussion needs to happen before you take random steps. -- sulfur (talk) 01:57, April 5, 2017 (UTC) What would be a good option then? And why do you think this is a bad one? --NetSpiker (talk) 04:40, April 5, 2017 (UTC) ::::Because it's confusing and creates the potential for duplicate entries if someone who doesn't know this is being done adds or re-adds an appearance to someone's page that you already removed and added to an unnamed character page. We would be better off having a list project of all the times the actor was seen but was uncredited/unidentified as a named character/in another dept than the usual one. --LauraCC (talk) 14:47, April 5, 2017 (UTC) If each character page has a link to the unnamed page explaining the situation, it would prevent editors from re-adding appearances. --NetSpiker (talk) 01:27, April 6, 2017 (UTC) ::::::I don't know much about the specific cases, but the best solution would be the one that prioritizes having as little assumption as possible. -- Capricorn (talk) 02:52, April 6, 2017 (UTC) I now think that the best solution would be something like this: "On stardate 2821.5, Galloway (or possibly Johnson) beamed in the survivors of the Galileo before the shuttlecraft incinerated around Taurus II." Or this: "On stardate 2821.5, an unnamed individual who might be Galloway beamed in the survivors of the Galileo before the shuttlecraft incinerated around Taurus II." The Johnson article would have the same sentence only with the names swapped around. --NetSpiker (talk) 00:53, December 6, 2017 (UTC) :: No, not for the case of Johnson/Galloway. --Alan del Beccio (talk) 02:40, December 6, 2017 (UTC) Why not? --NetSpiker (talk) 04:09, December 6, 2017 (UTC) Just found another example: Dorenda Moore played S. Money, Parsons and Myers, so in those episodes where she is not named and her nametag isn't visible, it's impossible to determine which character it is. --NetSpiker (talk) 07:24, January 12, 2018 (UTC) Grimes and Fitzpatrick. --LauraCC (talk) 16:04, January 19, 2018 (UTC)